Trump Closes On Mar-a-lago

December 28, 1985|By Julie Eagle, Staff Writer

PALM BEACH — Donald Trump, the New Jersey Generals football team owner known as ``Boy Wonder`` for his New York real estate coups, closed Friday on his purchase of the island`s most famous estate, Mar-A-Lago.

Trump is expected to spend winters in the 118-room national landmark, a once- premier mingling spot for old guard Palm Beach society, unoccupied since the 1973 death of its first owner, cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post.

``I feel it is one of the diamonds of real estate, and I love diamonds, as you know,`` Trump, 39, said in an October interview while mingling with islanders at the Palm Beach Ball in New York.

Trump, unavailable for comment Friday, signed a contract on the 17-acre estate Oct. 9. Lawyers closed on the deal Friday after receiving his payment, said Doyle Rogers, attorney for the Marjorie Merriweather Post Foundation.

The real estate tycoon also closed on a nearby oceanside lot he bought from winter resident Jack C. Massey of the Kentucky Fried Chicken fortune.

Trump and his father, self-made millionaire Fred Trump, 67, have amassed 20,000 New York apartments. Condominiums at the marble and gold Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue sell for up to $12 million.

The younger Trump, whose fortune is estimated at $600 million, last opened Trump`s Plaza, the world`s largest hotel-casino in Atlantic City, N.J.

He recently announced plans to build a football stadium near New York`s Shea Stadium and a ``Television City`` complex on Manhattan`s west side that would be anchored by a 150-story skyscraper that would become the world`s tallest building.

He has been dubbed ``Boy Wonder`` in New York business circles.

Mar-A-Lago, which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and borders the Intracoastal Waterway on the west, means ``sea to lake`` in Italian.

Trump has not revealed how much he paid for the property, but it is expected to range between $10 million and $15 million.

The town`s Landmarks Commission last week approved plans for a swimming pool on the estate, the first detail worked out in Trump`s plan to use Mar-A-Lago as a private winter retreat.

``Donald wanted a place down here,`` said a friend, Nadine House, who handles sales at Breakers Row condominiums.

``He had a security deposit with us,`` said House, whose condominums start at about $1 million. ``He was trying to put two penthouses together so there would be enough room for his kids. It couldn`t be done.``

Now, Trump, his wife, Ivana, and their three children will spend at least part of the social season in Palm Beach. The mansion, designed by Zeigfeld Follies creator Joseph Urban, has 58 bedrooms, 33 bathrooms, three bomb shelters, a theater, a ballroom and a nine-hole golf course.

``It is in a class by itself,`` Trump said in October. ``To me, Marjorie Merriweather Post is one of the truly fascinating ladies of the era.

``She had a kind of style that is unique. She was highly intelligent and extremely graceful. I think every bit of that (aura) should be preserved.``

Town officials were delighted the deal was closed Friday.

``It has been an enormously sentimental issue,`` said Town Council President Paul Ilyinsky. ``It was like having a cousin around you don`t know what to do with. You`re amazed no one has asked to marry her yet.``

And in preservation-conscious Palm Beach, officials have welcomed Trump`s plans to maintain the historic site`s grandeur, contrary to plans by Houston developer Cerf Ross, who wanted to subdivide it.

``Mar-A-Lago is the last of a bygone era,`` said Ilyinsky, who recalled attending a lively square-dancing party at the mansion in the 1940s. ``The lady who built it is one of grand dames of America.``

Post, who was married to E.F. Hutton at one time, willed Mar-A-Lago to the United States Department of Interior as a retreat for presidents and heads of state.

But the government returned it to the Post Foundation seven years later because the property cost $1 million a year to maintain.

The Marriott Corp. made one of the first pitches to buy the estate in 1982, but then changed its mind. Nearly two years ago Boca Raton developers William Frederick and Thomas Moye also tried to buy the estate but then gave up the idea.

Developer Ross signed a $14 million contract on the estate in August 1984 and planned to subdivide the 17 acres and build eight smaller homes around the mansion.

Before securing financing or closing on the deal, Ross gambled on selling the estate for a profit to an English businessman. But the Post Foundation grew impatient and signed the contract with Trump.